


Fever

by SerpentineJ



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: AU, F/M, Fluff, amorra - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-05
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-16 07:20:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2260914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerpentineJ/pseuds/SerpentineJ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>6)	Fever – Noatak is a new hire at the Republic City Hospital. Late one night, a girl is hustled into the ER with extensive injuries from a pro-bending match.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fever

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the delay, I'm back! And I'm running a similar story to this for the Shassie pairing on Psych. It's number 2 in the fluff oneshot series!
> 
> NOTE: I know nothing about the hospital environment! Sorry if I misrepresent things but I’ve never really been interested in medicine and I don’t watch medical dramas. Most of the things pertaining to medical conditions, physical ailments, hospital rules, and general conduct will most likely be wrong!

The young waterbender sighed as he sat in the waiting room. The ER of the Republic City Hospital was unusually quiet; there were no non-bending rallies going on, the roads weren’t icy despite it being the middle of winter, and there was only one patient in the ward: a poor fellow who came in with a fork stuck in his arm. Sometimes, the things he saw in the ER…

Suddenly, the electronic door whooshed open and a girl on a stretcher was raced in. She was pale, even behind her maroon pro-bending uniform which was tattered and torn, her skin was burnt and lacerations marred her arms and legs.

She was quickly followed by a three college-age kids; two wearing the same red uniforms, and another with ridiculous dark purple hair.

Noatak rushed over, being the only medic on duty, and took control of the stretcher from the EMTs.

~~~~~~

Blushing (he still hadn’t gotten the “clinical detachment” part down), Noatak removed the girl’s pro-bending uniform (leaving her… undergarments) and raised his hands, summoning the water in the bucket next to him. Letting the water engulf his hands, he activated the healing properties within the water and drew it over the poor girl’s body. The cuts, bruises, and burns began to fade, and her eyelids twitched. Good thing he hooked her up to the anesthetic: his face flooded red again at the thought of how a young girl would react to a slightly older man standing over her half-naked body, healing her.

Finishing, he dressed her in a hospital gown and rolled her into a room, setting her gently on the bed before removing the morphine drip from her arm and hooking her up to an IV drip instead.

He walked into the waiting room.

“How is she?” The earthbender and the one with the bizarre hair both leapt up, their firebending friend and the airbending master following at an equally worried, if more sedate pace.

“Better, but can I ask how Miss…” Noatak paused.

The airbender spoke up. “Korra. Her name is Korra, and I’m Councilman Tenzin. These three are Bolin, Mako, and Tahno.” He said, gesturing towards the earthbender, firebender, and hair-kid in turn.

Bolin said, “It’s all stupid Tahno’s fault. We were pro-bending training in the gym ‘cause we’re on our college teams, and Tahno shows up with his stupid cronies, picking a fight. We did a couple pro-bending practice fights and Tahno’s team decided it was a good freaking idea to do a 3-on-1 combo on Korra, never mind that we don’t have fancy protective gear like the private schools’ teams. Stupid Whitefalls College with the stupid Wolfbats.”

Tahno scoffed. “Please. The Wolfbats beat your stinking Republic City Commonwealth University Fire Ferrets any day.”

Noatak cleared his throat.

“Well, she should be awake now, so I can allow three people at a time to go in to see her. “

Tenzin, Bolin, and Tahno immediately got up.

Noatak led them to Korra’s room.

~~~~~~

“Korra!” Bolin exclaimed. He and the councilman both ran to her bedside, while Tahno lingered back awkwardly.

“Hey, guys. Urg, what happened? Am I… am I in the hospital?”

Noatak stepped up. “Hello Miss Korra, I am Dr. Noatak.”

Korra gave him a puzzling look.

“You have a concussion and a fractured ankle. I’m going to keep you here overnight, as the concussion is rather severe. I healed the cuts, bruises, and burns, but I would suggest you rest for 2-3 weeks. You’ll have to use these crutches to walk, and I’m afraid pro-bending is out of the question.”

Bolin said, “What? The opening match is in 3 days!”

Tahno looked at them guiltily. “I’m… really sorry, Korra.”

Bolin sighed. “Well, Korra, looks like we’re going to have to find a replacement waterbender.” He shot a nasty glare at Tahno. “What about Tarrlok?”

Without meaning to, Noatak let out a chuckle.

All the heads in the room swiveled to stare at him.

“Sorry,” he said, “just trying to imagine Tarrlok pro-bending.” His brother was currently working to get his degree in medicine, and the idea of him going to do something so brash and violent made him laugh.

Korra asked, ”You know Tarrlok?”

“I do indeed.” Noatak replied, looking at her. “He’s my little brother.”

The girl on the bed snapped her fingers. “That’s where I knew your name from!” she exclaimed.

He smiled, nodded and said, “Well, it’s not very busy today, I think I can let the rest of your group in for friends of my brother.”

~~~~~~~

Noatak scored the graveyard shift. Hooray.

~~~~~~~

In the middle of the night, several of Korra’s cuts became infected. She developed a fever, but thankfully settled down by the next morning.

~~~~~~

“Hello, Dr. Noatak.” Kora’s friends Tahno and Bolin walked back in near the end of Noatak’s shift. He was exhausted.  
They exchanged pleasantries and requested to see Korra.

Dr. Noatak, having nothing better to do (Really! Was there no conflict in the city at all? Not even a Triple Threat brawl or something?) stuck around and chatted with the college students. They discussed mundane, school-related topics for a while, until eventually the topic of conversation turned around to Korra’s temporary replacement in the upcoming pro-bending game.

“I would force Tahno to sub in, but he’s got a game then, plus the rules say you can’t be on more than one team at a time.” Korra sighed. “I think Tarrlok is probably our best bet, but he’s not very good at…”

“Attacking people?” Noatak suggested, smirking. “Korra, I need to re-heal and change the dressing on that burn on your shoulder.”

As she removed the cloth covering the burn in question, Noatak turned on the sink and siphoned a good amount of water from the tap.

Bolin looked up. “Hey, Noatak. You’re a pretty good waterbender, right?”

The doctor applied the healing water to Korra’s shoulder, looked up, and raised an eyebrow.

“I graduated at the top of Professor Kya’s class, so I am an acceptable healer.”

Korra gasped. “That’s right! Tarrlok said his brother was a waterbending prodigy!” She grabbed his hand. “Look, Noatak, I know we just met you and this is a ridiculously huge favor to ask, but would you fill in for me?”

Noatak thought back on his childhood, all the late nights spent avidly watching pro-bending matches with his father. Hadn’t he wanted to be a professional when he had been young, like many young benders had?

“Alright.” He agreed.

~~~~~~

“Thank you again for doing this, Noatak.” The earthbender tossed him a uniform with the words “FIRE FERRETS” emblazoned across the back. ”You can use Hasook’s old uniform; lazyass spent 2 weeks on the team before he quit. Thank god Korra transferred in.”

Noatak shrugged and pulled the uniform on, grimacing at how tight the chest area was. Apparently this “Hasook” had been a skinny kid.

“It was my pleasure.” He said, fitting his arm through the sleeve. “I wanted to be a pro-bender when I was a kid, it’s interesting to have a taste of the lifestyle.”

Korra sat on a beanbag chair in the corner of the loft above the gym, watching the three guys get ready for the match. She eyed her waterbending replacement appreciatively, the muscles of his back taut as he pulled on the too-tight uniform.

Asami walked up the stairs into the loft and caught the other girl staring at the new team member: she smiled and raised her eyebrows, walking over to sit beside her.  
At the black-haired girl’s amused look, Korra whispered, “What? You have a boyfriend, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good-looking guy who walks through these doors. And spirits, that voice!” She rolled her eyes in mock pleasure, grinning when her friend giggled.

~~~~~~

“Aaaand it looks like the favored underdogs, the fantastic Fire Ferrets, have found a temporary replacement for their esteemed waterbender, Korra! Intel suggests this man is named Noatak, and is a healer at a local hospital.“ The ‘announcer’, who was actually Asami’s cousin, paused. “Is he as good as the fan favorite, Korra? Will he doom the Fire Ferrets to an early death in this tournament? Or is he as good a waterbender as the hospital claims he is, and can he apply that power to the pro-bending arena?”

Noatak took a deep breath and grinned as the lights glared in front of his face. This was definitely exciting, and he didn’t want to let this team down.  
“And introducing the Fire Ferrets’ opponents, the Golden Temple University Tigerdillos!”

The opposing team walked out into the small, elevated stage, waving into the cheap artificial lights at the bleachers full of cheering students and teachers.  
The bell rang, and the match began.

~~~~~~

“Wow!” Korra enthused. “Tarrlok told me you were good, but that was amazing!” She grinned at Noatak, hobbling along on her crutches. “I sure am glad you were the doctor on duty the night Tahno’s team roughed me up.”

The waterbender blushed and tugged off his gloves. “It’s not that big a deal. My brother and I have been training for forever.”

Bolin slung an arm around Noatak’s shoulder, and the other around his brother’s. “So, whadd’ya say we go have our celebratory dinner? I vote Narook’s!”

Korra slapped him on the back and said, “I second that. I’m paying, and buying a round of drinks in honor of our amazing temp waterbender!”  
The team cheered, and Asami looked amusedly at Korra.

~~~~~~

“So then Korra looks him dead in the eye and hits him so hard with her water his helmet flew off into the stands!” Bolin finished, sending the rest of the table into an uproar.

“Oh, stop it.” Korra smacked him on the shoulder, grinning. “There was that time you took out the Hungry Hungry Hippo’s son, Bo.” Her brash smile softened just a touch and she turned to Noatak, who had been watching the group amusedly, occasionally taking a sip from his beer. “What about you, Noatak? Got any interesting stories?”

He chuckled. “Well, there was this one time when we were growing up in the North Pole, when Tarrlok decided he wanted to go penguin-sledding in the middle of summer, and-“

The brother in question, who had been invited along as an honorary Fire Ferret since he had pulled their team out of a tight financial situation a few years prior with Asami’s investments and some sharp money management, punched his brother on the arm and shoved a bun in his mouth. “Shut up!” He laughed. “You promised never to speak of that!”

“Mmmfp…” Noatak pulled the bun out if his mouth and took a bite, swallowing before saying, “He rode the penguin backwards down the hill and onto the ice, which broke, and he was saved and subsequently smothered by a sea lion.”

Tarrlok crossed his arms and pouted for a brief moment as the people at the table laughed good-naturedly at the brothers’ story. His petulance, however, was replaced by an evil gleam in his eye a moment later.

“Backwards?” Korra gasped, holding her sides. “How did you manage that one, ‘Lokk?”

“Well,” Tarrlok smirked, that mischievous glint prevalent now in his gaze, “Korra. Did you know that when he was 14, Noatak had a crush as big as a lion-turtle on a local village girl? Her name was Yue, after the moon spirit.” His smirk turned into a full-blown grin. “And he fretted and fussed and do you know how he finally asked her out?

Noatak’s eyes had widened and his face was flushed like someone had stuck his head in hot water. “Oh, spirits. Tarrlok, don’t you dare.” He glanced at Korra; the tiniest of peeks. No-one at the table noticed except Tarrlok.

Tarrlok always noticed.

His smile grew.

Tarrlok’s eyes twinkled and if his evil grin had stretched any more it would have ripped his face clean in half. “He-MMMFP.”

Noatak had shoved an entire hot pancake into Tarrlok’s mouth, effectively choking off anything he might have been about to say.

**Author's Note:**

> Holy crap, this one was loooong. Like, 2000 words. I could've made this one into an actual story.
> 
> Actually this one I might finish. I'm not sure on the way this ended.


End file.
